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AACTE is pleased to partner with Mediaplanet on an upcoming campaign to help celebrate and inspire those who teach. The campaign, aptly titled “Empowering Our Educators,” will take the form of a set of articles and resources to be published June 20 online and in print, with printed copies to be distributed at a variety of conferences and events (including ...

Now through May 29, AACTE is accepting session proposals for the 71st Annual Meeting, to be held in Louisville, Kentucky, February 22-24, 2019. We also invite applications by May 15 for AACTE member faculty to review proposals.

This year marks the 70th anniversary of AACTE’s founding. Created in 1948 as an alliance to boost the quality of teachers being prepared for the country’s growing public school system, our association remains steadfastly focused on the democratic ideal of providing all students equitable access to an excellent education.

Last month, AACTE cosponsored an event organized by PREPARED TO TEACH: Sustainable Funding for Quality Teacher Preparation at Bank Street College of Education to present its new report on the economics of teacher residencies. AACTE Director of Programs and Professional Learning Amanda Lester served as a panelist at the event along with New York Deputy Commissioner for Higher Education John ...

Do you know someone who recently completed a prize-worthy doctoral dissertation related to educator preparation? Please help spread the word: Applications for AACTE’s 2019 Outstanding Dissertation Award are being accepted in our online submission system now through August 20.

A research professor of education at New York University, Ravitch recently published a book, Reign of Error: The Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to America’s Public Schools—which argues that the crisis in American education is not a crisis of academic achievement, but of the destruction of public schools across the country—that landed in the number 10 spot on the New York Times Best Seller list.

As you have surely heard, late Wednesday night lawmakers reached a deal to end the federal government shutdown and raise the debt ceiling. The shutdown lasted 16 days, and in the end Republicans agreed to a bill that looked almost identical to what they had rejected three weeks earlier: a debt-limit increase until February 7 and an extension of federal funding through January 15. The Republicans won only one minor victory—a report from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on the processes used for verifying the income of subsidy recipients under the newly established health-care exchanges.

Although the Senate appropriations committee approved a funding bill for education programs in mid-July, the House did not follow suit; thus there is no education funding bill for the 2014 fiscal year. Education programs, along with many other federal programs, instead will be funded through a continuing resolution (CR).

In recent years, policy makers have also used CRs to extend a provision to allow teachers-in-training to be designated highly qualified. Last year the Coalition for Teaching Quality (CTQ), of which AACTE is an active member, was successful in limiting the extension of this provision to only 1 year and also in inserting a requirement on data collection and reporting.

AACTE will be introducing two exciting new sessions atour 66th Annual Meeting in Indianapolis.

After the Opening Reception, we will offer AACTE After Hours. We’ll have the cash bar open from 6:00-8:00 p.m. so you can take all the time you need to fill each other in, make a new acquaintance, or catch up with a fellow presenter.

On March 2, AACTE will host an AACTE Town Hall Meeting. This new General Session will give attendees a chance to interact with the Association’s leadership.

edTPA™ passed a critical milestone this summer when the final assessments were submitted and scored as part of an ambitious two-year edTPA field-test period. Completion of this extensive field testing gives new momentum to edTPA, which is scheduled to be fully operational and available to all states and teacher candidates beginning September 18.

During the 2011-12 and 2012-13 academic years, more than 12,000 teacher candidates in 26 states participated in the edTPA process. The candidates came from some 250 institutions. Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Tennessee and Washington were among the states with the highest number of teacher candidates participating in the field test.

Last month, President Barack Obama visited colleges in New York and Pennsylvania to discuss a plan to make higher education more affordable and accessible to all Americans. Soaring costs threaten accessibility; lack of accessibility threatens the economic growth of the country. Therefore, attention to this matter is absolutely required.

Throughout the country, an increasing number of students must rely on loans to pay for postsecondary schooling and are burdened with debt after graduation. According to the College Board (2012), among students earning bachelor’s degrees in 2010-11 from either public or private nonprofit, 4-year colleges, 60% of students took out student loans and graduated with an average debt of $25,300. This educational debt is especially taxing for graduates who choose to enter lower paying public service careers, such as the teaching profession.

Growing up in Louisville during the civil rights era, with activist parents who believed in the inherent connection between education and equality, I understood early on that a quality education can increase opportunities and improve outcomes for all children. I recall the civil rights hymn, “Woke up this morning with my mind – stayed on freedom,” which inspired so many and captured the urgency of addressing the injustice minorities faced in America at that time. Today, educational equity continues to be in the forefront of my mind.

The Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) reauthorization bill known as the Student Success Act (H.R. 5), passed last month in a partisan vote by the U.S. House Education and the Workforce Committee, would have a detrimental impact on the American education system and students’ access to qualified teachers. Of note, this legislation would repeal the national standard requiring teachers to be “highly qualified” in the subjects they teach.